I’ve seen a lot of people here discussing the names of various species recently, so I’d like to expand that conversation in another direction: people/pet names. Personally, I’m someone who pays a fair bit of attention to names. I don’t plan on having children and I don’t adopt new pets frequently so I don’t get to pick out names for personal purposes very often, but I notice them a lot on other people.
I’m especially fond of names with a natural element to them, so I was wondering what your opinions were on various nature-inspired names and if you had any you enjoyed. So what are your favorite nature-inspired names? Because iNat has a lot of users that are familiar with species or groups of species many laypeople would not be aware of, I suspect some of you will have some unique and otherwise under-appreciated responses to this question!
I’ll give some examples to get us started, placed under here so this post doesn’t get too long:
Names
Plant-inspired:
Aspen
Rose
Willow
Ivy
Sage
Insect-inspired:
Atticus and/or Atlas
Luna
Isabella
Charlotte (Note the Charlotte’s and Isabella tiger moths)
Lily is a nostalgic one for me. When I was a kid bringing home my first dog as a puppy for the first time, she quickly started digging in our garden. She had a special affinity for digging up the lilies so we ended up naming her Lily. She was a black lab and a great partner on all of my childhood adventures. :)
I had a pet bunny that was called Sielmann… after my childhood idol and imaginary grandfather substitute after my own died so early (and on the side he was also a nature documentarist :-))
Big chunk of old names were connected with nature, some just straight-up same words as names of animals or plants (e.g. Лебедь - swan, Щука - pike, Орех - nut, pretty much any animal could be used as a name), or close to that (Голуба - from голубка - female pigeon). Using them now often would be weird, Ivy sounds as a regular English name, but how many boys there’re with a name Cat?
I love this topic and it’s so timely for me as I’m actually expecting my first child and am especially fond of nature names! Maybe I will find some inspiration here
A few relevant names I’ve been thinking of/compiling in my head:
Silas (“of the forest”) and related Sylvia
Fox
Wolf
Raven
Hawthorn
Kestrel
Melissa (as in Melissa officinalis)
Althea (as in Althea officinalis)
Holly
Juniper
Robin
Wren
River
Oceana
If I think of more I’ll come back and add. Enjoying everyone’s contributions so far!
I had a cat named Tigerlily, a tiger striped cat with spots on her belly reminiscent of those on the flower. Also a character from Peter Pan which I was a fan of at that age.
My entire name translates to “Beloved rabbit of the forest meadow” so I think that counts for sure.
My dog’s name is “rescue” in Sindarin because she is my working K9 SAR partner so that’s nerdy if not naturey but I think of elves as nature so Elvin language works right?
ETA: Oh! And my first name does also share with a moth genus so there! I sometimes joke the moths were named after me :P
